Bodies Swayed to Music

Dance combines movement and music; its best practitioners add poetry and flair. From Bill T. Jones’s totemic musculature to the Radio City Rockettes’ stylish kicks, Vanity Fair has captured some of the greatest dancers and choreographers ever.

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The New York Jetés

A raven-haired Romeo from Salt Lake City whose subtle shyness mixes with deep curiosity, yielding an American hero straight out of Kerouac—the sweet-natured kind of guy who ends each sentence with the hint of a question, a slight upturn in tone that leaves the intent hanging, and who executes every ballet step, no matter how complex, with a throwaway, this-is-easy style, suggesting that there’s more to come, more to be revealed—that’s Robert “Robbie” Fairchild. In sharp contrast, we have a sure-stepping blond son of coastal Connecticut, born to wear blue blazers with well-shined shoes (in ballet land that means a prince of princes, wearing princely tunics), the sort of fellow who maintains a distance from the crowd, who stands out for his noble bearing and pristine technique, which was apparent even at a tender age—that’s Chase Finlay. It’s a thrill to watch these two New York City Ballet wonder boys take up the mantle of American male dancing in the 21st century, performing in everything from old-world and neoclassical masterpieces to new works made to measure for them. Fairchild, at 23, is already an acclaimed principal dancer, while Finlay, just 20, is steadily making his mark as a much-talked-about up-and-comer. They both display genuine excellence in dance as they become heirs to the legacy of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, of Jacques d’Amboise and Edward Villella. Bravo, gentlemen. Hats off. Look for these two in N.Y.C.B.’s winter season at Lincoln Center, which runs from January 18 through February 27. —Damian Woetzel

Chase Finlay and Robbie Fairchild, photographed in Montauk, New York. From the January 2011 issue. By Bruce Weber.

At any given time in the wildly partisan world of ballet there are maybe two or three dancers whose artistry is unanimously admired. American Ballet Theatre's Herman Cornejo, a 29-year-old Argentinean, is one such dancer. Since his first appearances with A.B.T. (he joined the corps in 1999, was a soloist by 2000, and became a principal in 2003), Cornejo's technical clarity, springbok elevation, and spellbinding smile earmarked him for stardom. And yet, despite having “the highest jump in the company” (according to his fellow dancers), it looked as if his height—not tall—might lock him out of lead roles and into demi-caractère. Cornejo's audience wanted none of that, and neither did he. “Obviously I want to jump and turn,” Cornejo says. “But to me acting is even more important. And those full-length roles have it.” Cornejo kept the faith, and in the last two years—breakthrough! His performance as James in La Sylphide was a particularly sustained and dazzling display of airborne brilliance. This spring, Cornejo brings his charismatic classicism to Prince Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty, Basilio in Don Quixote, and the ever impetuous Romeo. As for the demi-caractère roles still in his repertory—parts like Puck, the Bluebird, and Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy—you'll find him up in the air ... smiling. —Laura Jacobs

Angel Corella didn’t want to leave Spain in 1994, but his homeland no longer had a single ballet company, and the 19-year-old Corella, a classical dancer, was bursting to show what he could do. With nothing to lose he entered a prestigious competition, the Concours International de Danse de Paris, and won. His Grand Prix and Gold Medal led to a berth at American Ballet Theatre, which brought undreamt-of rewards: prince roles, world premieres, and stardom. Yet one wish remained.

“To leave my country, it wasn’t a choice,” he explains. “I was lucky, but it doesn’t happen for everyone else. Time passed, and I decided to take the torch.” It was 2001 and Corella’s plan was to establish an international ballet school in Spain, to be followed by a national ballet company. There was a hitch, however. “In Spain,” he says, “they need to see the product before they can invest in it.” With the support of Spain’s royal family and the help of a major sponsor—the state of Castilla y León—Corella created that product. In 2007, auditions drew nearly 2,600 dancers from all over the world, and by 2008 the Corella Ballet Castilla y León was touring.

With the company’s first New York engagement, at City Center this month, Corella is now bursting to show what his dancers can do. “Technically they’re brilliant,” he says. “Every show is like a bomb of energy, young people just ripping the stage apart.” And the New York season, I ask, it will be a success if … ? Brown eyes dancing, Corella takes a leap of faith. “Not ‘if,’” he asserts. “It will be.” —Laura Jacobs

Dancer and choreographer Angel Corella, photographed at City Center in New York. By Ruven Afanador. From the March 2010 issue.

Members of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, photographed by Annie Leibovitz at the company’s Joan Weill Center for Dance, in New York City. From left: Renee Robinson, Matthew Rushing, Dwana Adiaha Smallwood, Wendy White Sasser, Dion Wilson, Linda Celeste Sims, and Glenn Allen Sims. From the February 2005 issue.

Principal men of the New York City Ballet, photographed by Bruce Weber at an Adirondack camp in upstate New York. From left, Damian Woetzel, Ethan Stiefel, Albert Evans, Nilas Martins, Jock Soto, and Nikolaj Hübbe. From the December 1996 issue.

Mikhail Baryshnikov, Eliot Feld, and Damian Woetzel, photographed by Bruce Weber at the Ballet Tech Foundation in the Lawrence A. Wien Center for Dance and Theater in New York. From the January 2004 issue.

The cast and creators of the New York City Ballet’s Carnival of the Animals, photographed by John Huba at NYCB’s rehearsal studios in New York City. Clockwise from top left, Carla Körbes, P. J. Verhoest, Jenifer Ringer, Christopher Wheeldon, and John Lithgow. From the May 2003 issue.